Duke Energy is facing federal criminal charges for pollution at five North Carolina power plants, including its Asheville facility, where prosecutors allege the company illegally discharged coal ash or wastewater laden with coal ash.

Three U.S. Attorney's Offices on Friday charged Duke with violations of the Clean Water Act. The prosecutors say the nation's largest electricity company engaged in illegal dumping for years at coal-fired power plants in Asheville, Eden, Moncure, Goldsboro and Mt. Holly.

MountainTrue, an environmental group that is home to the French Broad Riverkeeper, is one of several conservation groups throughout the state that have sued Duke Energy to press the company to relocate coal basins away from waterways.

"I am glad to see Duke Energy forced by federal prosecutors to finally admit what North Carolina Riverkeepers have been saying for years," Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson said in an email. "They have been illegally polluting North Carolina waterways with toxic heavy metals from their leaking coal ash ponds for decades."

The indictments allege that coal ash or coal ash water was also dumped illegally from four of the five facilities and that Duke unlawfully failed to maintain equipment at the Cape Fear and Dan River plants.

The charges have been filed against Duke subsidiaries by the U.S. Attorney's Offices out of all three districts. Prosecutors in the Western and Middle districts have filed paperwork asking that the cases be transferred to the Eastern District.

Duke said Friday it has already negotiated a settlement under which it expects to pay $102 million in fines and restitution in the case, costs that will be shouldered by shareholders.

The investigation into Duke began last year after a pipe collapsed under a coal ash dump at the Eden plant, coating 70 miles of the Dan River in gray sludge.

Frank Holleman, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, represents MountainTrue and a host of other environmental groups in litigation against Duke Energy, and said the company should show remorse by moving coal ash away from waterways.

"We informed Duke Energy and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources of these violations of the Clean Water Act in 2013, yet Duke Energy's polluting coal ash storage has yet to be cleaned up and has now resulted in criminal prosecutions," Holleman said in an email. "The important point is this: Duke Energy cannot buy its way out of its coal ash scandal, it has to clean its way out."

In a statement, Duke President and CEO Lynn Good said the company's highest priority is for safe operations.

"We are accountable for what happened at Dan River and have learned from this event," Good said. "We are setting a new standard for coal ash management and implementing smart, sustainable solutions for all of our ash basins."

The company is addressing the issues through facility improvements or new permitting.